PHOENIX - Behind the county hospital's tall cinderblock walls, a 27-year-old tuberculosis patient sits in a jail cell equipped with a ventilation system that keeps germs from escaping.

Robert Daniels has been locked up indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of his life, since last July. But he has not been charged with a crime. Instead, he suffers from an extensively drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. It is considered virtually untreatable.

County health authorities obtained a court order to lock him up as a danger to the public because he failed to take precautions to avoid infecting others. Specifically, he said he did not heed doctors' instructions to wear a mask in public.

More at //news dot yahoo dot com/s/ap/20070402/ap_on_re_us/tuberculosis_confinement --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quarentining individuals with uncurable diseases has historically been the way to keep the disease confined. In the Seattle area they had a huge barracks type hospital for those with TB.

I am still wondering why those with AIDS were not quarentined early on. Perhaps the world, especially Africa, would be better off today if they had. How many lives could have been saved by a little caution?

Simple Reason.....Political correctness prevented it............your life was in danger for even mentioning it! And, of course, everyone is sooo afraid of being "labeled" a homophobe......shiver, shiver, they called me a homophobe....but that's the crux of it! Today it might even be construed as... gasp.....HATE SPEECH!!!